The Waterless Sea: A Curious History of Mirages

by Christopher Pinney

Mirages have long astonished travelers of the sea and beguiled thirsty desert voyagers. Traditional Chinese and Japanese poetry and art depict the above-horizon, superior mirage, or fata morgana , as exhalations of clam-monsters. Indian sources relate mirages to the “thirst of gazelles,” a metaphor for the futility of desire. Starting in the late eighteenth century, mirages became a symbol in the West of Oriental despotism—a negative, but also enchanted, emblem. But the mirage motif is rarely simply condemnatory. More often, our obsession with mirages conveys a sense of escape, of fascination, of a desire to be deceived. The Waterless Sea is the first book devoted to the theories and history of mirages. Christopher Pinney navigates a sinuous pathway through a mysterious and evanescent terrain, showing how mirages have impacted politics, culture, science, and religion—and how we can continue to learn from their sublimity.

Genres: Nonfiction

184 pages, Hardcover

Published July 15, 2018

Reviews

[Jbussen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wow, this author is in love with million dollar words! I don't know what I was expecting to find here. I mean define ESOTERIC? & I already knew the basic how and why of a mirage. I didn't figure that there would be the same amount of mirages in polar climes as we usually associate Mirage with the dessert and hence the name of the book. This book is just too scholarly for my tastes. I was curious how much a person could write about mirages and how much there was to know. I found out.

[Debbie Jacob · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating, if sometimes very erudite look at the history of mirages, which are, as the author describes, "true but not real". There is an extensive history of mirages, and what is most fascinating is that there are several pictures of them. Mirages can be photographed. Although we associate them with deserts, they are found on the water and on the ice.

[Hana · Rating 3 out of 5]

nice liccle global history of these catoptric phenomena, a subject that has hitherto hardly been paid any scholarly attention